Violent TV desensitizes adults, who become lenient with kids

Certainly TV advertisers believe it to be true; otherwise, companies would not have spent $86 billion last year just on television trying to convince Americans to buy their goods and services.

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Yet people continue to debate whether TV can impact or even harm children.

For years, the Parents Television Council has cited numerous studies reporting that children can be impacted by the graphic content they see on TV and in other media. This is why we at the PTC believe our mission to protect children from sex, violence and profanity in the media is crucial.

Now, a new study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center shows that adults who repeatedly view scenes of extreme violence or sex makes them more tolerant of such content — and more lenient in allowing children to watch the same.

In the research, parents were shown clips from movies and then asked about what age a child should be before watching that film. At first, a majority of the respondents' reactions were that children should be 17 before seeing those films. After watching more clips, parents' responses grew more lenient, saying similar content was acceptable for children age 14.

The rapid rate at which the parents were desensitized surprised even the scientists. Dan Romer, associate director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the lead author on the study, said, "We expected there to be a certain amount of what we call desensitization," he says. "But what was so stunning was how clear the pattern was and how dramatic it was."

That is certainly cause for alarm. If parents become rapidly desensitized to harmful media content, it's logical to conclude that children would also become desensitized if they watched the same content.

Another recent study published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture shows wide support for the idea that TV shows, movies and video games containing violent content can lead to increased aggression in children.

The PTC's own research on violence has found shocking types of violent content rated as appropriate for 14-year-olds just on primetime broadcast television alone. The following forms of violence comprised 77 percent of the violent and graphically violent depictions that aired during primetime broadcast on TV-14 rated shows: child molestation, rape, mutilation/disfigurement, dismemberment, graphic killings and/or injuries by gunfire and stabbings, violent abductions, physical torture, cannibalism, burning flesh, suicide, beatings, guns and bladed weapons, and dead bodies.

If someone is watching TV programming with these types of violent content night after night, one cannot help but believe that content becomes internalized, and subsequently, the person becomes desensitized. This is especially true when the one watching is a child.

So whose responsibility is this? Many argue it's the obligation of the consumer alone to control what they watch, and that is certainly true. But the entertainment industry, too, is responsible and accountable for what it produces, distributes and markets — especially to children.

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Los Angeles Times TV critic Mary McNamara recently took on the arguments that the industry uses to avoid responsibility for the impact their products have on our society. "To argue that entertainment does not impact culture is absurd. Hollywood doesn't get to take credit for breaking ground with films such as 'Philadelphia' and shows like 'Will & Grace,' or for that matter 'Girls,' only to wash its hands of more-destructive attitudes," she wrote.

It is difficult to believe we, as a nation, can make any meaningful progress against senseless real-life horrors that stem from domestic abuse, gun violence, sexual assault or sexual exploitation if our entertainment culture continues to trivialize and be awash in such material. If we are to move forward in a positive direction, we must begin to push back against the tide of harmful images, attitudes and actions that are so ubiquitous in today's entertainment media. Parents need to be parents, and the entertainment industry must take responsibility for its actions.

Hopefully, we haven't become desensitized to that reality.

Tim Winter is the president of the Parents Television Council, a nonpartisan education organization advocating responsible entertainment.